Mass Effect: Shattered Dimension
by Katherian
Summary: An older version of myself tells me I have to jump dimensions to one where the Mass Effect Universe is real, alter my own messed up future/history, save Shepard and stop the Reapers from their galactic extinction plans. I must be crazy to take up that task right? Then again, how can you say no to yourself? Starts a month or so before Eden Prime. Rated T
1. Chapter One: Prologue

**Hello readers,**

**Just to let you know someone hacked my account and tried to take this story for their own (Noticed the name change on the account when I went to the story) Anyway I got in touch with FF and had the story removed as you may have noticed, however I have created a new account and will be reposting it here with a few corrections, so with that said it's great to be back and let's get to it.**

**Usual Disclaimer: Mass Effect is owned by Bioware, Bioware is owned by EA, I own nothing except the OC's used within this story. So with that out the way, let's begin.**

**Prologue**

_I used to have an easy life you know, it was filled with the usual mundane routines. Wake up, go to work, come home, relax, eat, sleep and repeat, with the occasional game of ice hockey thrown in at the weekends and some video gaming when I could. One weekend however that all changed and my life took an unexpected detour. My name is Robert O'Neill and this is my story about how I wound up in the world of Mass Effect._

With the weekend having arrived I had decided to spend the morning catching up one some gaming, mostly finishing my latest run through of the Mass Effect Trilogy before heading out to play some hockey in the afternoon. I had finished the game and packed my gear away before heading home, following the same route home through Central Park.

I'd made it about half way home when I heard quick footsteps behind me before I was grabbed and a bag thrown over my head. I struggled against my attackers the best I could before what I could only describe as an electric shock passed through my body, setting every nerve on fire and stopping any attack I might have had.

"It's okay; we're not going to hurt you." Said a female voice which I kind of thought I recognised as my attackers switched from pulling me wherever we were going to simply guiding me instead, as if to prove the statement correct. I heard a door open as I was lead inside and guided to a chair before the bag was pulled off of my head.

Blinking I glanced around the darkened room and realised I was actually back home and frowned "What the hell…?" I muttered as a walked out of my kitchen, although I couldn't make out his features fully in the dim light.

"I'd almost forgotten what this place looked like." He said as he walked around the living room, examining various photos and items on the walls and shelves before reaching my game collection. I watched in silence as he picked up the case for Mass Effect and looked at it before snorting and putting it back down with a shake of his head.

The man turned to look at me as I shook my head in an attempt to shake off the remnants of the electric shock thing I'd received.

"I apologise for any discomfort you may have suffered by my friends here." He said.

"Oh no problem." I muttered sarcastically "Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my house?" I asked "Which by the way, since you were here makes me wonder why you bothered with the whole kidnapping thing."

"We had to be certain you wouldn't freak out and run; we don't have a lot of time." The older man replied as he stayed just on the edge of the shadows so I couldn't see who he was. Glancing around I saw that there were at least two other people in the room with us, one of them judging by the silhouette was the female who had told me not to struggle and the other I assumed was another man.

"And what makes you think I would freak out?" I asked trying to appear braver than I actually felt.

The man laughed "Because I would have back then too…" he paused "In fact I did as I recall." He added with a chuckle "But that was a long time ago."

"Well as fun as this is I'm sure you had a reason for all of this so what do you want?" I asked as I tried to figure out a way to get out of this situation.

"Your help." The man answered.

I actually laughed then "My help? Well you've got a funny way of asking for it pal." I countered and watched as his silhouette shrugged.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures."

I frowned "Spare me the cryptic crap already and tell me who the hell are you."

The man stepped forward into the light and I froze in utter shock. The man before me looked to be in his late forties with dark blonde hair with grey streaks going through it, dark grey eyes that clearly reflected a lot of pain and grief within them and he had a long scar going diagonally from just above his right eyebrow over the eye and midway down his cheek. But what had caused my shock was that the man looked exactly like me, just a little older.

"I think you already know." He smiled.

After a moments staring and blinking I opened my mouth to speak "B…but you…you can't be me, it's…it's impossible."

The older me laughed "I would be saying the same thing if I was in your position, in fact I did when it happened to me…granted it wasn't actually me who recruited…well me back then but still." He said before shaking his head out of the memory. "It is possible although highly improbably."

"You can't be me." I said.

"Well I am." The older guy countered.

"Well then 'Me' how about untying me then?" I asked.

Older me laughed "No."

"And why not?"

"Because I know you, if I untie you the first thing you'll do is punch me, then you'll go for the spare hockey stick you have under the couch and try to take out my two friends behind you and make a run for it." He answered.

The annoying this was that was exactly what I had planned to do but I tried to keep my expression neutral.

"No I wouldn't." I said instead.

"Oh come on Rob you can't lie to me, after all we're one and the same and it's exactly what I would do in your situation." He said.

"I still don't believe you are me." I countered.

The older man sighed "I never remember being this stubborn." He muttered before rolling his eyes "Fine I'll prove it, ask me a question that only we would know."

I blinked, taken back since I wasn't really expecting that and had to think about it for a minute before I came up with something that I knew nobody else would know since I hadn't told anybody about it before.

"Alright if you really are me you should know the answer to this. When I was 15 I broke my arm, how did I do it?" I asked and watched as the older me smiled.

"We broke it playing Ice Hockey." The older me answer and now it was my turn to smile but before I could tell him he was wrong his smile grew bigger as I saw a very familiar smirk cross his face "At least that's what we told everybody anyway, we actually broke it falling out of tree after spying on Melissa Jenkins who'd we'd had a crush on for years but never had the courage to ask you." He paused and laughed "We figured it would be a good idea to…observe her, figure out what she liked and go from there, instead we wound up with a broken arm."

My eyes widened in surprise since that was what happened and to this day I hadn't told anybody about that, for obvious reasons.

"We really shouldn't have done that, it was creepy and very much illegal." Older me said.

"I know." I countered in a slightly higher pitch voice "I was young and stupid." I added before shaking my head "Alright so let's say for a minute I believe you actually are me, how are you even here? And why?"

Older me sighed and ran a hand though his greying hair "To tell you that I'd have to start at the beginning and we don't have much time so I'll give you the quick version. Back when I was your age, about a month from now I went to a party with a few friends, it was a cosplay type of thing. While there I met a girl who called herself Kalya, she was a beautiful girl dressed like an Asari." He paused as he thought about the memory before shaking his head.

"Only thing was she really was an Asari, an honest to god real Asari. She told me that she was from an alternate reality where the Mass Effect world was real and that what had happened in the game was happening in real life and that thanks to something her people had discovered had found a way to manipulate Mass Effect fields to allow dimension jumping. They sent people through to different realities to see what similarities and differences there were between them. Most of them were the same with only slight variations until they came across ours."

I sat listening in what I'll admit was scepticism as he continued.

"When they discovered the Mass Effect game, which had mentions of them but as video game characters they obviously studied it before returning home, wondering how a group of humans could have knowledge of their universe when as far as they could tell no such technology existed here. Then Saren's attack on Eden Prime happened and they sent someone back to see what happened in the game, only problem was Shepard had been killed on Eden Prime and as such they returned here again to bring someone from this reality back to fill Shepard's shoes."

"And let me guess, that person was you?" I interrupted.

"Yep, lucky me." The older me said "I don't know why she picked me but I couldn't exactly refuse I mean a chance to live in the Mass Effect universe, that was pretty cool. Besides we never were one to refuse to help someone, I figured mom and dad would turn in their graves if I didn't."

I found myself nodding in agreement with that statement my parents were good people and had drilled into me from an early age that you should always help out when it was needed and I'd stuck to that for the most part over the years.

"So why are you here now?" I asked.

Older me sighed again "I failed." He said as he lowered his head "Even with the knowledge of the trilogy I wasn't Shepard and things occurred differently, things I couldn't predict or control."

Before I could ask anything I heard footsteps from behind me and watched as the woman stepped into the light and I found myself staring in shock again at Ashley from the game. She had the same brown eyes and looked like her Mass Effect 3 version although a bit older, just like the older me.

She hadn't said a word to me and instead stayed in the background letting older me discuss everything with me, but with older me going silent had walked over and sat down next to him before squeezing his hand.

I raised my eyebrow but stayed quiet as older me looked up at the woman and smiled before turning back to me.

"The Reapers won the war. They took out Palaven before we had a chance to react and with it wiped out the majority of the Turian military fleet, with them gone it was downhill from there, the Asari and Salarians didn't stand much of a chance and the Alliance wasn't going to hold out long." Old me said before going quiet again.

It was this time when Ashley turned and spoke, no doubt having realised that the older me was having a hard time continuing.

"We knew that it was only a matter of time before the Reapers got to Earth and with the major council races defeated we didn't stand a chance. So with Liara's help Rob and I decided to try and repeat what the Asari that recruited him did and come back to get you again." She said.

I thought on what had been said for a moment before pointing out something that I thought was obvious "Uh well considering the fact that the Asari came back and got…well 'me' before and I failed what makes you think doing it again will change anything this time around?"

Older me looked up at me "Because I'm going to send you back earlier than the Asari did me, that was her mistake."

"Well why not just go back yourself then, why send me at all. I mean you've already lived it right?"

Older me actually laughed "Oh we'll be going with you we just won't be participating much, we would stick out there."

I raised an eyebrow again "And where…or when exactly is that? Assuming I even agree to this."

Again older me just smiled "I already know you'll accept, I may be older than you but I am still you and I did it so don't even try to tell me otherwise because I know better."

I sighed, having already decided that I wasn't going to skip the opportunity to go to a universe that was way cooler than this one; I mean space travel alone was the reason to go. "Alright so where am I going exactly?"

"The plan is to send you back just before the attack on Eden Prime, Shepard is the key, I'm sure of it. Everything had changed by the time I arrived and things played out differently than the game, and the only difference was the fact that I was in Shepard's place. Now Ash was there and she knows how Shepard died, the plan is to get you to Eden Prime before the attack so you can save Shepard and with a bit of luck that will be enough to get you on the crew."

I nodded having figured out what the other me was thinking "And you're thinking that with Shepard alive that things should followed the route of the game and as such there's a better chance of stopping the Reaper threat."

Older me nodded "That's the idea."

Before the conversation could continue the other member of the group, the guy who I had forgotten about cursed "Damn Rob they found us!"

Older me cursed "Shit I thought we had more time. We need to go."

Before we could react the door to my apartment burst open and two men and an Asari burst into the room. The older me and Ashley dived behind the sofa they were sitting on and I hit the floor as the shooting started. The other member of older me's group managed to take out one of the three assailants before being shot by the Asari.

Ashley popped up from behind the couch and fired a few shots from a pistol and killed the other human before being enveloped in a blue field and sent flying across the room into the wall, knocking her out.

"You'll pay for that bitch." The older me snarled as he popped up and started firing at the Asari, all I could do was watch as the shots impacted off of what I guessed was her biotic barrier. What did surprise me however was when older me flared blue and used a biotic ability of his own, although the Asari seemed to shrug it off as she fired back at older me who was forced to take cover.

I stayed low and used older me's distraction to crawl over towards where Ashley had fallen and tried to rouse her back to consciousness, figuring an extra gun would be useful for older me, but try as I might she wouldn't wake up.

I glanced back to see that the Asari seemed to be getting the upper hand over my older self and cursed as I tried again to wake up Ashley with little success. I glanced back to see the other me move down the length of the sofa and round to another chair and winced when the Asari put a few bullet holes through my flat screen TV.

It was then that I saw the bag containing my hockey gear and scrambled across the floor to reach it, thankful that the Asari's back was turned to me and retrieved my goalie stick before standing up and making my way over towards her.

I'd almost reached her when older me popped up to fire again and spotted me although he made no indication that he had. The Asari flared blue as she prepared another biotic attack, which was when I swung the stick as hard as I could and hit her around the back of the head. She grunted and fell forwards unconscious.

"You alright?" I asked my other self who nodded.

"Yeah, grab her gun." He said as he made his way over to Ashley.

I walked over and picked up the Asari's fallen weapon and examined it, hard to believe that I was holding what appeared to be an ECRS Striker. Then I turned my attention to the Asari and studied her. She had typical blue skin and scalp crest for an Asari and I'll admit a hot body to go with it. It was then however that it hit me that I was staring at an actual Asari and with it everything else that had just happened.

"Holy shit that's an Asari…and someone just tried to kill me. This…this is insane. I mean this is nuts." I started muttering as I began pacing.

"Would you relax?" the older me said as he tried to wake Ashley, breathing a sigh of relief when she started to come round and turned his attention back to me, quickly realising that my little panic attack wasn't going to stop anytime soon, at least not without an intervention.

I, in the meantime hadn't stopped muttering or pacing "…I mean fucking aliens that shouldn't exist, video game characters that shouldn't exist." I added as I waved at the now conscious Ashley as she stood up "…And then there's you!" I added as older me stepped in front of me and grabbed my shoulders.

"Hey! It's okay." Older me said although he had a small grin on his face "Listen to me Rob you need to calm down alright."

"Oh is that all I need to do is it, just…just calm down? I am way, waaaaay beyond being calm!" I replied.

Old me sighed and glanced over his shoulder to look at Ashley "I was never this bad was I?"

Ashley smiled "Once or twice."

Older me shook his head and turned back to me before slapping me across the face "Alright you need to calm the hell down and take a breath!"

The slap though did work and I took a few deep breaths before looking at my older self then at Ashley before I saw something and frowned.

"What?" Older me asked, having seen my expression change "What is it?"

"She shot my TV." I said as I pointed over his shoulder at my ruined TV before glancing down at the unconscious Asari "You bitch."

The older me actually managed a chuckle "Yeah you'll be fine, but we need to get out of here."

A statement that was reinforced when we heard sirens approaching "Oh that's just perfect." Older me muttered as he headed into the kitchen and pulled out the cables from my oven and turned it on, hearing the gas start to hiss into the room.

"Good thing we brought this place." He muttered as he collected his gear and picked up the unconscious Asari "We can't leave her here what would the cops think?" He answered my unasked question.

Ashley and I left with the older me last, who paused at the door and tossed a match into the room before running as fast as he could out of the building and down the alleyway. The sound of an explosion echoed through the streets as my apartment blew up.

After getting in my car, older me drove to their hideout while Ashley kept an eye on the Asari and I bitched about my now destroyed apartment until we arrived at a warehouse in Brooklyn.

"We don't have much time." Older me said as he got out of the car. The first thing I noticed however was the large metal cube in the centre of the room with symbols on covering it.

"What the hell is that?" I asked.

"That's what brought us here and what will send us back." Older me answered. "The Asari did a great job reverse engineering this one, all we need to do is give it enough pure liquefied Element Zero and input a time and date and it does the rest itself."

"Sweet." I muttered as Ashley pulled the Asari out of the car.

"I've got her." Older me said to the marine "You get the Element Zero and get that thing programmed, the sooner we get out of here the better."

Ashley nodded as she handed the Asari over and headed over to what appeared to be a pile of rubble and started moving it until she recovered a metal briefcase and opened it. I watched as she removed a glass vial of blue liquid and made her way over to the cube and poured the contents of the vial into a space on the cube.

Once the vial was empty the cube started to glow and Ashley began pressing the symbols. My attention however was drawn to a scream and turned to see that Asari had regained consciousness and kicked older me in the groin, which caused me to wince.

Ashley cursed as she realised she didn't have a weapon on her and I had left the Asari's pistol in the car. The Asari turned to look at me and smiled.

"Oh crap." I muttered as she flared blue as I was lifted into the air and pulled towards her. I struggled against the invisible field that held me as I neared the woman with no success.

"So you're the one who could help lead to the masters end? I'm not impressed." She said.

"Oh now that's not fair." I grinned "After all I did knock your ass out earlier didn't I?"

The Asari's look changed to one of anger but before she could do anything was tackled to the ground by Ashley. With her attention turned to her and away from me the biotic power that had been holding me was gone and I fell to the ground. I'd just got back to my feet when I saw Ashley flying through the air right towards me and then collided with me before I could react causing both of us to groan. By the time we had managed to get up older me and the Asari were fighting again.

"Finish programming that thing!" Older me yelled as the two exchanged punches and kicks, and I had to admit it was good to see that older me could still fight. I'd done karate when I was a kid and knew how to handle myself in a fight, gunfights however I had no experience in.

Ashley ran over to the cube, pressed the last of the symbols and stood back as the cube started to glow brighter and brighter as the air started to crackle around us, I could feel my skin begin to tingle as every hair on by body stood on end.

Bolts of electricity started to shoot out of the cube and joined a few paces in front of it. I could only watch on as a portal seemed to start forming between the two points and expand until it almost reached the ceiling in height and stretched across half the room.

"It's open." Ashley announced.

"Go, I'll be right behind you." Older me said.

The slight distraction would prove costly as before either Ashley or I could react the Asari had pulled a knife out of somewhere and stabbed older me in the back. Ashley screamed and I could only watch as my older self coughed up some blood before dropping to his knees.

The Asari turned to face me and smiled as she flared up again, ready to no doubt take on Ashley and I, however a gunshot rung out around the room from the shot fired by my other self who had kept luckily kept a gun on him.

The Asari's biotic power flickered once before she dropped to the ground. Ashley ran over to the other me with me a few paces behind.

"Come on we need to leave." Ashley said.

Older me coughed again "I'm not going to make it Ash, we both know that. Besides…" he coughed again "He's the one that needs to make it, not me."

"But…" Ashley began.

"You know I'm right." Older me interrupted before turning to look at me. "Not many people get a chance at a do over, at least now you have chance to succeed where I failed the first time round." He paused as another bloody coughing fit took over.

"…Save Shepard and help stop the Reaper threat, I know it sucks…being put into this position and it won't be easy…but 1 life…our life in exchange for the lives of every race in a galaxy…"

I nodded "…Is worth the cost, I know." I finished for him "I'm you remember."

Older me smiled "That you are…now go, both of you."

With a nod I stood up "I won't..." I began than stopped and corrected myself "We won't fail again, I promise."

Older me nodded one more time before I turned and walked towards the portal to give the other me and Ashley a moment to say goodbye, which lasted far less than I thought it would have as she joined me a few seconds later.

"Let's go." She said with a whisper. We both took one last look back at the other me who had either blacked out or died I couldn't tell and stepped through the portal.


	2. Chapter Two: And so it beings

**Hello everyone,**

**Thanks for all the favourites, follows and review for Shattered Dimension so far, it makes this author very happy :) And I hope you continue to enjoy this story as it progresses.**

**- Katherian**

**Chapter One: And so it begins…**

I wasn't quite sure what I was expecting in regards to travelling though dimensions but thanks to countless science fiction shows, movies and video games I expected a wormhole like thing with lots of colours like you were on a weird drug hallucination or something, instead what I got as I stepped into the portal thing was a blinding white light and then I was standing in what looked to be one of those generic bases from the Mass Effect 1 side missions…very dull if you ask me.

We were currently standing in the middle of what looked to be the central room of the building. Ahead of me was a closed door with a green holopad which I assumed led to a little corridor that branched to both the left and the right at the end, based on the assumption that this place stuck to the same layout as the ones in the game. I turned on my heel and did a 360 examination there was another door behind me, which probably lead to the exit, however there was another door one the right wall, which was different to the generic buildings in the game.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Our base, it's a small compound on Zion in the Exodus Cluster." Ashley paused as she looked over at me and gave a small grin at my raised eyebrow "What? You didn't think we'd plan all this and not have something setup beforehand did you?"

"Well I…hadn't really given it much thought." I replied.

"Well we did." Ashley said "When we decided to go through with this plan we first came here, used the credits we had left to buy this place and stock it with some gear before we came to get you, considering we only have a little over a month or so to get you in some basic combat form we didn't want to waste time procuring thing then."

"So I'm guessing guns and armour mostly?" I countered.

"And some normal clothes that the other you picked out for you."

I frowned as I glanced down at my current attire which was a black shirt over a dark purple t-shirt with the words "Lazy but talented" written on it and an old pair of denim jeans "What's wrong with these, surely people still wear jeans and shirts here."

Ashley grinned "Of course but the style has changed at lot since then, those are a bit…dated."

To which I just shrugged "So now it's a retro look then."

I had to give Ashley credit as she started showing me around, guess all those years being a marine helps to put the grief to one side when needed, I've got to admit I would be a mess right now if I had lost someone close to me and the other me and her had been close from what I saw, although how close I didn't know.

I had been mostly right about the building's layout, the door that had been in front of me when we had arrived did lead down a small corridor with another one that branched off to the left and right, these rooms were setup to be bedrooms albeit fitted with only a standard double bed and a closet for clothes, then again since we probably wasn't going to be here long it made sense.

I had been given the room on the left while Ashley had taken the room on the right. I had also been right in assuming that the door behind us when we arrived led to the exit, which only left the new doorway that hadn't been in the games. This led to a small armoury stocked with a few pairs of armour, three pairs of each type of weapon from the game, which looked to be a few Scorpion pistols, three Avenger assault rifles, sniper rifles and shotguns although I couldn't tell the manufacturer.

Opposite the armoury was the kitchen and a bathroom complete with shower was just down the corridor from there. The main room where was actually quite bare, with just a lone desk with a computer terminal in one corner and a few chairs around it, which Ashley had told me was done to make room for some hand to hand combat sparring if needed.

"Well start your training tomorrow but for now I'm sure you'll want some time to reflect on all this." Ashley said before lowering her voice "It's been a long day."

I couldn't help but agree with her on that. I watched as she walked away from me, heading towards the door that led to our rooms before she stopped and reached into her pocket and pulled something out, although since her back was turned to me I couldn't see what it was. She hesitated a moment before she turned around and walked back over to me.

"I have something for you." She said "It was yours…well my…the other you, he gave it to me just before…" she paused as her voice cracked "He'd want you to have it."

I glanced down at what was in her hand and frowned at the object. "Uh thanks but I'm not really bracelet kind of guy." I said as I looked at the silver bracelet in her hand.

To my surprise Ashley laughed "It's not a bracelet, it's an Omni-Tool." she said as she raised her arm to show off hers.

"I always wondered what those things actually looked like." I muttered as I took the bracelet and slipped it onto my wrist, not really surprised that it was a perfect fit. "So how does it work?" I asked.

Ashley walked to stand next to me and pointed to a small button near the top "Press that to turn it on." She said; which I did and couldn't resist the childlike grin that spread over my face when the top of the bracelet slid open slightly to reveal what looked to be a small round lens which glowed slightly before projecting the holographic computer system.

What did surprise me however was that unlike the orange in the game, this one was green. "Well that's different." I said aloud.

"You never did like the orange." Ashley said "Since this is the Omni-Tool the other you had since he arrived here the first time, it's been upgraded a lot over the years. To start with Tali upgraded the memory and storage capacity so it runs faster and can store more data, there's information on the Reapers, Cerberus and his journal, I think everything he wrote in there from when he arrived is still on it."

I nodded "Anything else?" I asked.

"Well Tali boosted the output of the Overload discharge to inflict slightly more pain to incapacitate hostiles for longer and enough to fry most Geth in a single hit." She paused in thought "The only other thing I can think of is that the Omni-Blade is about 3 inches longer than the standard one, although I have no idea how he managed to do it."

She paused for a moment before continuing "Now when you're out of armour and in casual clothes you need to push that button to activate and deactivate it, but when you're in armour it will automatically sync to your suits VI, although you'll still have to manually use it to use features like Overload unless you get an implant to do it by thought, which is what most of us use nowadays."

That statement actually made sense to me since I had always wondered how those things worked in the game without the characters actually pushing a button to active it in combat.

"Thanks Ashley." I said with a smile, which she returned with a small one of her own.

"That's what I'm here for."

Ashley retreated to her room shortly after that and I decided to give her some time to herself, choosing to get familiar with my Omni-Tool and was surprised at how easy it was to use given the multitude of functions it can perform…although there was that moment when I nearly took my eye out the first time the Omni-Blade activated but other than that everything else went smoothly and it did look pretty awesome in green I have to admit.

We got together again a little later in the evening for dinner with Ashley going over some of the things she had planned for my training in the time we had before moving on to other subjects, one of which I had been curious about.

"So I noticed that the other me used Biotics back on Earth, how'd that happen since I'm pretty certain I'm not a biotic." I asked.

Ashley gave a brief smile before she answered "That was a decision that I and a few others didn't agree with." She began, causing me to raise an eyebrow in response.

"Shortly after Saren and Sovereign's attack on the Citadel the Normandy was sent to investigate the disappearance of some ships, the story was that we were cleaning up the remnants of the Geth…"

Needless to say I had a feeling what she was going to say next "The Collectors?" I asked, to which she nodded.

"They took us by surprise and cut through the Normandy like a hot knife through butter, you stuck around to send a distress beacon to the Alliance but the ship was taking a beating. Joker refused to leave and I wouldn't go either but you told me too make sure the rest of the crew made it out safely while you got Joker."

I nodded and suppressed a shudder, assuming that I suffered the same fate that Shepard did at the start of ME 2 "Let me guess, I managed to save Joker but got spaced in the process and died."

"What? No of course not." Ashley gasped "What on Earth would make you think that?"

_Huh, well there's something different _I thought and apparently the other me hadn't told Ashley what had happened in the beginning of ME 2 "Just a thought." I shrugged.

Ashley stared at me for a moment before continuing "Well you managed to convince Joker that going down with the ship wouldn't solve anything and managed to get to the last escape pod. Although the Normandy was destroyed we survived and the Alliance recovered all the escape pods." She paused as she went silent for a moment, a sadness washing over for a brief moment.

"You were the only one who knew it was the Collectors, not that many people believed you, apart from Anderson, even then there wasn't much he could do. But you knew what was likely going to happen so you did something I never thought you would do in a million years…"

"What?" I asked.

Ashley sighed and shook her head "You went to Cerberus."

"What?" I asked again, although this time in shock, which caused Ashley to smile.

"That was my reaction too." She replied "You said that regardless of whatever happened Cerberus would mostly likely be the ones to help, not that many of us believed you. I certainly didn't but you went ahead and contacted them anyway." She paused again "I refused to believe that Cerberus would help and after seeing what horrors they had been doing during our hunt for Saren I couldn't believe that you would even consider associating with them. You tried to explain it to me but I wouldn't listen but you went to them anyway. You disappeared for two years and there were reports that you were working for Cerberus." She paused again and lowered her gaze to the table "You sent me messages for the first six months but I never replied to them, I was too angry with you for going to them…eventually the messages stopped coming."

She returned her gaze to me "Eventually reports started coming in that Human colonies were being attacked and the colonists being abducted. Intel said that Cerberus was responsible and that you were seen at a few of the sites. Anderson sent me to investigate and stationed me on Horizon, eventually the Collectors showed up, followed by you in a new version of the Normandy, and you were a Biotic. You told me what was going on and asked me to join you and Garrus but I refused." She paused again "I said a lot of horrible things to you that day and accused you of betraying everything we had fought for during the Saren days, all I could think of was Cerberus and that they had corrupted you somehow, after Horizon I went back to the Citadel and reported to Anderson who told me that you had been to see him and had been keeping him in the loop somewhat."

I sat there fascinated to hear what the other me had been getting up too in that two year gap and was surprised to see how similar and yet different the events had taken place, granted I hadn't been spaced and died and yet I still ended up disappearing for two years and with Cerberus and wondered if there were any journals on my new Omni-Tool from that time, I'd have to look into that later.

"I sent you a message explaining everything and apologising for my attitude on Horizon." Ashley continued "But you didn't reply, not that I could blame you really. Shortly after that we heard that you had gone through the Omega 4 relay. We all feared that you would never come back but three weeks later you did, although the new Normandy was almost in as bad a condition as the original had been during the opening wave of the Collector attack on the SR1." She paused again "You lost a lot of people during that mission…anyway you had kept the Collector base and had given it to the Illusive Man and Cerberus, you told me that that was the price you had to pay for the genetic modifications to become a Biotic and to get him to build the new Normandy. I couldn't believe that you had made that deal but I could understand it, and it did help in some ways."

To say I was shocked at that would be an understatement, I'd only ever done one renegade play through of Mass Effect, where I had handed over the Collector base and even then it was only because it was because I was going renegade but in real life I would never have given it to him.

"So basically I let Cerberus experiment on me, turn me into a Biotic and then gave them something that had been used to kill hundreds of thousands of human's?" I asked the disgust evident in my voice.

"You had your reasons." Ashley replied with a glare "And it wasn't exactly a decision you made lightly." She added in defence of my other self. I really wanted to ask her what had happened after that and find out what had happened during Mass Effect 3 but it was getting late by then and I could tell that having spoken about the other me was taking its toll on Ashley so we called it a night.

Ashley went to bed before me but I stayed up in the main room and played around with my Omni-Tool, eventually discovering my other self's journal and went back to the first entry.

_I can't believe I'm here in the freaking Mass Effect Universe, I mean this is insane! The training Kyala and the other Asari had given me had only been the basics but it had been enough to give me a start. As I'm writing this I'm on board the Normandy! It's exactly the same as in the game, although Captain Anderson is in charge, what with Shepard being dead. I managed to get on the crew by "conveniently" showing up to rescue Tali from Saren's men shortly before Kaidan and Ashley showed up. Since I was with Tali they took me back to Anderson and Udina's office where I pretended I worked for the Shadow Broker and that I was the one Tali was supposed to meet before Saren's men interrupted. It took a lot of convincing to get Anderson to agree to let me come along but he did; now all I have to do is fit in, do my best to help out and try not to get killed. Speaking of which Kaidan and Ashley are going to be running me through training when we aren't on missions, which I have to pass before Anderson will allow me to go on any…oh joy._

"Well that was one way of getting on board." I muttered as I finished reading the entry with a yawn, deciding that now was probably a good time to get some sleep, especially since I had a feeling Ashley wasn't going to go easy on me.

I could hear her crying through her door as I made my way to my room and glanced over at it, briefly wondering if I should go and check on her but decided that it would probably be best to let her grieve on her own for now and retired to my room, thinking about what was in store for me tomorrow.

"Are you kidding me?" I grunted as I put on the medium armour chest plate "Can't I start with light armour and work my way up?"

Ashley chuckled "Think yourself lucky I didn't start you off with the heavy one, you'll be fine." She said as she guided me through the process of putting on the armour and taking it off, which she made me do what seemed like a thousand times, claiming that the more times I did it the quicker and better I would get at putting it on and taking it off, which yes I will admit she was right about but it didn't change the fact that it was an exhausting pain in the ass.

After several long hours I could put on and take off the armour in less than five minutes but by then I could barely lift my arms to do anything else, and that wasn't the end of it. Then I had to learn how to adjust to the added weight and move while wearing it all, which took another 4 hours and numerous amounts of falling flat on my face followed by laughter from my sadistic teacher, I swear she enjoyed that far too much.

Luckily once I could walk, jog and run in it without falling over or crashing into things we broke for a much needed break…well much needed on my part anyway.

"You enjoyed that far too much." I muttered as I slumped down in a chair with a sigh, to which my teacher just smiled.

"Well it brought back a lot of memories for me, although I don't remember you falling over quite so much back then." She replied with a soft smile before going quiet.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Yeah I just…yeah." She said softly "You did really good though, made a lot of progress. You won't be running any marathons in that armour yet but at least you can function in it, you'll adapt more over the next few days and soon it'll be like you aren't wearing it at all." She added.

I spent the next few days either walking, jogging or running around the compound to better familiarise myself with the armour as well as learning how to understand the HUD displayed in my helmet, although that was pretty easy since it was a lot like the games really.

The following day we tried moving onto heavy armour but I quickly decided that I was more than happy with medium armour and saved myself time and I'm pretty sure injury by ending those lessons quickly, although I did have to suffer Ashley mocking me for not being able to handle the armour she wore.

Speaking of Ashley I had to admire her strength at staying focussed on training me given everything that had happened. During the day you wouldn't know that she had lost pretty much everything only a few short days ago because what I saw during that time was Ashley Williams the marine, the chick who went around knocking Geth on their synthetic asses and staring down Reapers and everything else without batting an eyelid.

It was only late at night that someone would know that what they saw during the day was not the same person at night. I had never seen this other Ashley but I had heard her often enough. Every day she would tell me a bit about what they group had done during their experience with the war and hunting down Saren or teaching me about Combat tactics and tricks to keep your armour in top condition on the battlefield. And every night I would hear her crying herself to sleep over the loss of…well pretty much everything really, in a lot of ways I was in a similar situation, although there wasn't exactly much in my life for me to miss if I'm being honest.

There was no denying that Ashley and the other me were close, although whether that closeness was that of two people who had fought through countless battles or something more intimate I wasn't sure nor did I feel that it was my place to ask.

However I won't lie and say it didn't break my heart to hear her crying her's out every night and each night I was conflicted over whether or not to disturb her, partly due to the a thought I had heard her say last night.

I had just finished what I thought was my final day of armour training, having finally being able to move fluidly no matter what the situation: running, walking, jogging, standing, sitting or crouching. I'd placed the armour pieces back in the armoury and was making my way back to my room when I heard her. She had started recording a journal on her Omni-Tool after I had told her about reading or listening to some of the other me's entries and how therapeutic he had said they had been in a few of the entries. As a result some nights I heard her either recording her journal on the day's events and how my training was going, usually in the form of a letter to the other me and other nights it was endless, heart-breaking crying.

This night however was a combination of the two; I had just reached the crossroads that went between our bedrooms when I heard her speaking through the closed door.

"…He's made a lot of progress with the armour; in fact you'd think that he'd been wearing it for years watching him. He moves a lot like you did." I heard her voice say before a long gap. Wanting to respect her privacy I turned and made my way towards my door when she continued, albeit a little quieter.

"There are a lot of things he does that you did; I shouldn't be surprised since you're mostly the same pretty much, although he hasn't lived through what we did. But he is the exact you I remember back when everything first started when we went after Saren…and then there's his sense of humour, that smirk of his and the mischievous glint in his eyes that you have." I heard her chuckle before she speaks in an even sadder tone which makes me pause "Sometimes it's almost enough to make me forget that you…that your gone." The first sobs were barely audible but the second, third and fourth are much louder in comparison despite their quietness.

"But you are gone." She cried "And no matter how much I pray that wasn't true or how much I wish that he was you I know that's not going to be. And it's so hard Rob…it's so hard to mourn you when it's like looking in the mirror every time I see him…I miss you so much."

And that right there was why I hadn't disturbed her because I had had the same thought myself, how can you offer to comfort someone over the loss of someone special when you're essentially wearing their face? So I had decided to give her time to herself in the evenings, hoping that given time she would get better. Her tears continued as I started moving towards my door and hit the pad to open it, glancing over my shoulder towards the grieving woman's door once more before walking through into my own and hearing the door slide shut behind me.


	3. Chapter 3: Let the Training Begin

**Hello all,**

**Thanks to all the new follows, favourite and reviews, I appreciate them all.**

**This is the shortest chapter so far but I had it in my head and wanted to get it down while it was still there, the next one will be longer.**

**Katherian **

**Chapter 3: Let the Training Begin**

"Damn it!" I cursed as my shot missed for what seemed like the hundredth time today, and it was only 11:30 in the morning. "I am never going to get this." I muttered as I looked over at Ashley "And your constant laughter isn't helping much."

"I'm sorry." Ashley laughed "But watching you get frustrated is very funny, it's the look on your face that does it."

I glared at her "Well I'm glad I can be so entertaining."

Ashley shook her head "It's easy." She said as she walked over to where we had stacked the empty bottles and cans on the fence and adjusted them slightly.

"When standing still it's all about posture. First put your left leg slightly in front of your right and keep your arms at about the same width apart to match your legs when you aim." She said, which I did, although I had been doing that since I started at 8:30 this morning with little success.

"Right now close your weak eye and aim down the sight with your dominate one." For me that mean closing my right eye and aiming with my left despite the fact I'm right handed.

"Good now rest your finger on the trigger and take a breath before firing and when your ready squeeze gently on the trigger."

Once she was clear I took a moment to focus and fired and even though my shot missed it was definitely closer than my previous attempts had been.

"Well that was a little closer, I can live with that." I said.

"That's just because they aren't shooting back at you." Ashley smirked as she walked over to me "I still think your posture is a little off, let me take a look, assume the position again."

I looked at her and cocked an eyebrow in what was becoming my "questioning expression" as Ashley called it but did as I was told and stood the same way as I had before, wondering just how she was going to tell me how and where to stand this time.

However I was taken by surprise when she bent down and grabbed my left leg and ran her arm up and down it, causing me to tense before she pulled it forward and to the left slightly.

"Well if you were this tense before no wonder you keep missing." She grinned as she moved over to my right leg and adjusted that one as well, before standing up and taking a step back to get a better look and nodding. "That looks better." She said before walking towards me again.

I lost sight of her as she made her way behind me and felt myself tense again when she wrapped her arms around my waist, which only got even more uncomfortable for me when she had to lean forward on tip-toes to glance over my shoulder given my slight height advantage over her, an action which caused her chest to press into my back and her head to rest gently against my shoulder, at which point I could have sworn she leaned into me slightly to press her cheek against mine, but then again I could have imagined that.

"Now let's fix up your aim shall we?" She said into my ear, although her voice sounded perfectly normal.

"Sure, you're the expert after all." I muttered as her hands made their way down my arms, a little slower than I think they needed to if you'd ask me and made me wish we were wearing our armour for this and casual attire.

She finally reached my hands and gently placed hers over mine before pulling upwards to raise my aim, at which point she edged her face closer to mine and stayed there for a moment before speaking "Looks like the aim is good from here but you'll have to tell me."

I looked down the barrel of the gun at the sights and the bottles just past it and it seemed to match up "Uh yeah that looks good."

"Okay then." She said "Let's take a shot and see what happens."

I felt her hands squeeze gently against mine as her index finger rested against mine on the trigger of the pistol before pressing lightly against it until the shot was fired, followed a few moments later by the sound of breaking glass as the round hit the bottle.

"Holy crap, we hit it!" I said with a grin forming on my face.

"Yes we did." Ashley replied. "That's pretty much all there is to it."

I nodded as I tried to remember the position my body was currently in so that I could repeat the stance later and kind of zoned out for a few seconds as I took note of where my feet were in relation to the other and everything else before I realised that Ashley had yet to release her hold over me.

"Uh I think I've got." I said.

"Oh…uh right." She muttered softly as she released me from her embrace and took several steps back "Just wanted to make sure you'd gotten used to the posture." She added.

"Thanks." I replied.

Ashley nodded before turning back to the rest of the targets "Now let's see if you can nail a few more." She said, this time with a slightly stronger voice.

I managed to hit 2 of the next 5 I'd shot at, which was still more than I had managed to accomplish in the hours before that. Ashley had excused herself a little while after that while I stayed to practice, no doubt wanting to escape from the awkward tension that had filled the air. I tilted my head from side to side and rolled my shoulders in an attempt to shrug off the feeling before resuming my practice.

Over the next hour I eventually managed to average between 2 or 3 out of 5 shots before deciding to take a break and grab a snack. The range had been setup in the field behind out little compound, which was located in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere, although Ashley had told me it was only about 2 miles west of the main city and spaceport.

When I got back to the compound I didn't see Ashley and figured she had probably gone back to her room and headed for the kitchen to make some food. I made a turkey sandwich before deciding to make Ashley one as well before heading for her room, noticing that the holopad was red.

"Ashley?" I said as I knocked on the door.

"Yeah?" came a quiet reply followed by a sniff.

"I was feeling hungry and grabbed a sandwich, made you one as well if you want it." I said and was about to place it on the floor for her to collect when I heard the beep of holopad and saw it turn green as it opened.

Ashley looked a lot like she had done when she had left earlier, although her eyes were puffy and bloodshot now, no doubt from another crying session "Thanks." She smiled as she took the plate from my outstretched hand.

"No problem." I replied "I'm sorry for interrupting; I'll let you get back to whatever it is you were doing." I added, a little amazed as how I'd made it sound as though she was just doing some causal housework or something and was even more amazed when Ashley thanked me in the same way, although it seemed as though she was glad I wasn't making a big deal of it.

I heard her feet shuffle across the floor as she turned around and turned back to face her "Hey Ashley."

"Yes?" she countered as she turned around.

"Thanks." I smiled "For having the patience to put up with me and teach me all this stuff, I know I'm not the best student, never have been."

Ashley smiled "You're not so bad." She replied "Besides I've had practice."

I nodded "Fair enough, still I wanted you to know that I appreciate everything you've done for me so far."

Ashley smiled again, this time a slightly bigger one than before "Your welcome."

I returned her smile with one of my own "Well enjoy your sandwich, I'll be outside practicing some more."

Sure enough I spent the rest of the afternoon practicing with my pistol and by the end of the day had increased from shooting at five targets to ten and was averaging a steady 50% hit to miss ratio, yeah it was only 5 out of 10 shots but that was a 50% improvement from before so I'd take that.

Ashley had come back a little later, thanked me for the sandwich and stayed to watch me practice. I had to admit that I was glad we were back in the time when the guns didn't need thermal clips, since the cooldown time wasn't that bad really, plus it meant you never ran out of ammo which was a plus to me. I'd also been surprised at how little kickback there had been with the pistol, which definitely helped make the gun easier to fire, there was still a little kickback but not as much as I had been expecting, then again it was a pistol and not one of the others.

I decided to stop practicing when it had gotten dark, with my Omni-Tool informing me that I was up to a 52% hit to miss ratio, it still wasn't good enough for combat but at least I had time to increase that and still considering it was only my first day that was pretty good, then again with about a month to go and depending on how many weapons Ashley was planning on teaching me I needed to get good quick.

We'd had our evening meal and Ashley spoke a bit about her father and her grandfather since she already knew pretty much everything about me, although I did wonder briefly how I'd get through hearing it again if I managed to get on the Normandy but I could probably fake my way through it if necessary.

"My Mom and one of my sisters was on Earth when the Reapers came, my other sister was on the Citadel I doubt any of them made it." She said quietly.

"They made it." I said with certainty.

Ashley looked up at me "How do you know?"

I felt myself smile "Two reasons really. The first, yours sisters I imagine are just as strong and smart as you are and you survived and your Mom…well she raised all of you so she's probably got some skills too."

Ashley smiled "Your probably right, and the second?"

I flashed my cheeky smirk as I motioned to the room with my hands "Look at where we are, we're in the past…well you are anyway, none of that has happened yet. Your family is alive and well right now and when it's time to go to Eden Prime I will save Shepard and we will stop the Reapers of that I have no doubt."

Ashley smiled "Your right…that's strange I have memories of it happening and yet technically none of it has yet."

I nodded "Exactly, I know it's not much and won't replace…everything but it's something to think about right?"

I could see Ashley's eyes water but judging by the smile on her face they were more happy tears than sad ones, no doubt about her sisters being alive "Thanks Robert." She said softly.

"Anytime." I replied as a silence descended on us for a good five minutes or so before I eventually spoke up again, having decided to do something I probably should have done a day or two ago when we first arrived. "Are you okay?" I asked.

"What?"

"I asked if you were okay, I know it can't be easy for you. You know having to deal with me after what happened with the other me."

I watched as Ashley lowered her head, causing me to feel guilty for even bringing it up "I'm sorry." I said "And if you don't want to talk about it I understand."

I wasn't surprised that she didn't answer me and stood up to take our plates into the kitchen and shoved them in the cleaning unit before heading back into the main room to see Ashley still sitting on the couch with her head lowered in the same position it had been when I left and figured she'd want some more time alone and walked past her towards my room before stopping next to her.

I heisted only a moment before placing my hand gently on her shoulder "I just…I'd hate for you to go through this alone so if you ever need to talk…I guess what I'm saying is I'm here if you need me." She still didn't say anything nor did she move, even after I removed my hand and walked away, heading towards my room.


	4. Chapter 4: Class Selection

**Chapter 4: Class Selection.**

I'd been laying on my bed for about an hour going through more of older me's journal when there was a knock at my door. I closed my Omni-Tool and sat up before telling Ashley it was open, watching as she walked into the room and looked at me for a moment.

"Hey." I said with what I hoped was a warm smile.

"Hey." Ashley replied as she glanced around the room before turning her gaze to the floor "I…it wasn't supposed to be like this." She whispered "He wasn't supposed to die."

"Neither was Shepard." I replied "But if she hadn't of gotten him odds are she would have gotten you or me and obviously neither of you wanted me to die otherwise everything you'd done up until that point would have been for nothing and I'm pretty sure the other me would never have wanted you to die."

Ashley remained silent but nodded in agreement "It's just so unfair." She said after a moment "After everything we'd gone through fighting to save the galaxy and stop the Reapers for him to just…" her voice broke and she stopped talking again.

Although I couldn't hear her crying or see her face because she was still looking at the ground I could see her body shaking when she sobbed and stood up before walking over to her and placed my hand on her shoulder, letting her know I was there.

After a moment she stepped towards me, buried her head into my chest and wrapped her arms around me as she cried. After a moment's hesitation I wrapped my arms around her as this latest wave of grief bombarded her soul, feeling her hands tighten around my shirt as she held on through her suffering.

Eventually I could feel her body stop shaking as it passed although she remained in my embrace for a while after that before eventually pulling away "Thank you." She whispered.

"Anytime." I replied as I motioned for her to sit down on my bed and sat next to her.

"It hasn't been easy." She said "Despite everything and the fact your younger well there isn't that much of a difference between you, either in personality or even looks for the most part and that's both strange and comforting, but hard."

"I can imagine." I replied.

Ashley nodded and then chuckled "I'm surprised you haven't asked me yet."

I looked down at her and frowned "Asked you what?"

She turned her gaze towards mine "What our relationship was like."

I shrugged "Well it's clear you were close, other than that it's not my business."

Ashley frowned "What makes you say that?"

"Because despite how much I may look, act and sound like your Robert, I'm not him." I answered "And assuming I manage to stop Shepard from dying on Eden Prime then my life will be different to the one he led, besides the fact I won't have to step into Shepard's shoes there's no way to know what other aspects of my life will differ from his as a result."

Ashley remained silent as she thought about that and I could only watch as an expression I couldn't really tell crossed over her features before she reached down the front of her top and pulled out the necklace I had only just noticed she had been wearing and clutched it tightly, as if my statement just threw her entire world out of balance.

"We were married." She said softly before turning to look up at me, a sad smile on her face "About a year after Saren and Sovereign's attack on the Citadel."

"Married?" I asked in shock "You and me?"

Ashley nodded "Well during your training on the Normandy, going on missions together and speaking to each other during our downtime while we went after Sovereign we grew close. Just before we went to Ilos was our first night together, although neither of us were sure then if it was love or just two really good friends who wanted companionship before what could have been a no-coming-back mission." She paused and smiled "Turned out to be love in the end."

I remained silent for a long time after that "You seem surprised." She chuckled.

"Well I just…never really thought I'd get married." I replied and watched as a sad, knowing look washed over Ashley's face and I almost face palmed myself since she probably knew about my reasons for not thinking I'd ever get married.

"Sorry." She said "I should have remembered."

I smiled "Don't worry about it, besides I always figured there was a tiny chance that some woman would eventually be able to do something about that."

Ashley smiled again "Well for what it's worth you didn't make it easy for me to get into your heart, although in the end it was worth it…for both of us." She paused as tears filled her eyes again "How do you move on from the love of your life?" she asked.

"I'm really the wrong person to ask, having never had therefore lost a love of my life before." I replied "I guess you just fight through the pain and learn to accept it with the help of the people around you." I added with a shrug.

"I guess you're right." Ashley whispered before standing up "Thank you for listening to me, talking about it…helped."

"Anytime." I replied as she headed toward the door and left, returning to her own room.

It had been two days since Ashley and I had spoken and although I still heard her crying from time to time I think she was starting to accept it and move on, it also meant that training had stepped up. Over the last two days I had been perfecting my handling of a pistol and was now shooting with a 90% hit to miss ratio which was good enough.

Now we were going to move onto the next weapon in my training which is why we were currently standing in the armoury. Ashley had suggested the Avenger but I had another weapon in mind which I had told her about, which had led to our current situation of her looking at me in shock and confusing.

"What?" she asked for the third time.

"You heard me; I'd rather go with the sniper rifle." I answered.

"But…why?"

I shrugged "I've always been fascinated with sniping and since I now have the chance to learn for someone who knows how to do it why not?"

"You never mentioned it before." Ashley countered.

"Then I guess there's finally a difference between your me and me." I replied.

Ashley shook her head in disbelief before placing the Avenger back on the shelf and retrieved two sniper rifles instead and handed one to me.

"OK but this isn't going to be easy."

I couldn't help but laugh "Right and saving the galaxy from a sentient race of machines is."

Ashley paused and then smiled "Fair enough smartass, let's go."

We made our way back out to the shooting range we had setup and got setup, with Ashley showing me how to sync up the rifle with my armour VI to help with wind speed and trajectory calculations. Granted with the advanced in technology you didn't have to do much in that regard but it still needed to be done to factor in the type of rifle used, the amount of kickback done by the rifle and the distance from you to your target.

"OK a few things to remember about sniping, your armour VI and HUD will tell you the distance and feed you information on wind speed and direction and can help factor that in with your targeting, what it can't do however is factor in the kickback from the rifle, which you need to figure out for yourself." Ashley said from beside me.

"And the only way for me to figure that out is by taking a shot and getting a feel for the rifle." I stated.

"Yep, now each rifle is different but once you get a feel for one and use it enough times you will learn what adjustment is needed and will factor that in by instinct when you've become one with your rifle."

I couldn't help but chuckle "One with your rifle huh? How very zen of you."

"You laugh but many snipers will tell you that there's a bond between a sniper and their rifle and if you managed to master it then you'll probably say it too eventually."

I nodded "I guess you're right. So what's first?"

"Well first you need to take a shot, we've got a few cans setup down there so look down your scope and pick one."

I decided on the one in the middle since the targets in the scope were already aimed at it. "Got one." I said.

"Right now you want to take a deep breath to steady your aim and hold it when you fire before releasing your breath and remember not to have your eye against the scope otherwise the kickback will hit you and it'll hurt like hell."

I did know that in fact it was pretty obvious but I wonder how many people didn't and ended up hurting themself as a result before putting that thought out of my mind. According to my HUD there was hardly any wind today so all I needed to do was adjust the trajectory to factor in distance and the slight drop in height as the round travelled across the distance between me and the target.

I decided to aim about 3 inches above the can and hoped that I was at least hit my target and then use that to adjust for the kickback. While Ashley had programmed her Omni-Tool to track my round in case I missed so that we could find out where it went and adjust from there.

I relaxed my trigger finger as I placed it on the trigger and aimed through the scope before taking a breath and gently pulling on the trigger, firing the gun. I can admit to everybody that I had drastically underestimated the force of the kickback as not only did the barrel lurch a good 4 or so inches into the air but with my lack of proper grip the damn thing nearly flew out of my hands, much to Ashley amusement.

"Yeah, yeah laugh it up chuckles." I grinned "It is my first time after all."

Ashley held up her hands in surrender even though she was still laughing. "Just tell me how far off I was." I added as I adjusted my aim again and tighten by grip on the rifle while she studied the data.

"Well your shot went straight but you missed by about 3 inches, so aim a little higher." She replied.

With a nod I aimed 5 inches above the can and repeated my actions as before and fired again, smiling to myself when the rifle didn't jump as much as it had before.

"You missed." Ashley said "The height is right but the shot went wide, you need to aim a little to the left, say…2 inches, maybe 3."

I nodded and decided to go for about 2.5 inches, aimed at the same height as I had before, took a firm grip on the rifle again before taking a deep breath, aiming and firing, but cursed when my shot missed again.

For the next several hours Ashley and I worked on adjusting my aim and yet I never managed to hit the target.

"Maybe you should just admit you won't be a sniper, at least you tried." Ashley said as yet another shot missed its mark.

"That one should have hit." I said with certainty.

"Rob…"

"No Ash I'm serious, I've done the math that last definitely should have hit." I interrupted "But if you think I'm wrong, you try." I said as I stood up to let her use the rifle I had been using.

"Fine, but I'm not a proper sniper like Garrus was." Ashley replied as she took her position and took a few moments to line up her aim before firing. "Huh." She muttered as her shot missed as well.

"Told you." I said with a smug grin as I leant back against a wall and folded my arms across my chest.

"There must be something wrong with the rifle…or the scope is out of alignment." Ashley said as she stood up.

"Or your just as bad at this as I am." I grinned.

"Pft I don't think so, I'm a pretty good sniper I'll have you know, in fact I can drill a hole in a target from a mile away without breaking a sweat."

"And yet you just missed one that was half that distance just now." I countered as I pointed over her shoulder.

Without a word Ashley picked up the rifle she had brought with her and aimed at the cans before making her adjustments and firing. Even without a scope I could see the can fly off the fence they had been lined up on.

"Told you." She grinned.

"Give me that." I said as I walked over to her and took the rifle from her and taking aim myself before trying to remember everything I had been taught and making my own adjustments, just thankful that Ashley had picked the same make of rifle that I had been training with and took aim before firing and laughed when my can also flew off the fence, although judging by the way it shot off slightly to the left I had struck the right side of the can when I had been aiming for the middle, still I shot it and that was the main thing for now.

"Thank you." I said as I handed her back the rifle.

"Not bad, not bad at all." She replied before grinning "Although don't think I didn't notice that look on your face when that can flew off to the right. Let me guess you weren't intended to aim for that spot."

"…yes I was." I muttered, which only caused her to laugh again.

"Sure you did."

"I did."

"Uh huh."

"I did, totally intentionally."

"Riiight, keep telling yourself that."

"Hey it's not my fault you don't believe me."

We kept up our banter all the way back to the main building, having decided to call it a day on the training, well mostly. Since it was clear that something was wrong with the rifle I had been using Ashley spent the next three hours showing me how to disassemble the rifle, check, clean and replace all the parts and put it back together again.

The next week was spent trying to master the sniper rifle, disassembling and reassembling both the pistol and the rifle and long runs with both weapons and armour to get my fitness up and by the time the weekend came round I was exhausted, both physically and mentally.

"Remind me again why I decided to do this?" I muttered as I slumped into one of the chairs after another long run. I'd tried to get some sniper training in but my arms could barely keep the rifle steady I was so tired, so I didn't bother and decided to call it a day.

"Because you're a good person and the fate of the galaxy is at stake." Ashley smiled.

"Oh right." I sighed "Well the galaxy better appreciate it."

Ashley chuckled "Well it's not so bad, it certainly helping you out too."

"How so?" I asked as I closed my eyes and stretched out in an attempt to loosen my muscles a bit.

"Well did you know how to use a pistol before you came here?" she asked.

"No."

"And how about a sniper rifle, granted you still need to work on that a bit but your almost there with that too and it's only been a few weeks."

"No, I couldn't but then again I had no desire or need to do those back then." I replied.

Ashley nodded "Fine but have you looked in the mirror lately?"

I opened my eyes and looked over at her "No I haven't, why? What does that have to do with anything?"

"You seriously haven't noticed?" Ashley asked in surprise.

"Noticed what?" I asked.

"Well not only are you healthier but you're a lot more muscular than you were when you arrived." She replied as I watched her eyes gazed over my body and lingered there a little more often than I'd like personally, don't get me wrong even though she was at least 15 or so years older than Ashley was in the games she was still attractive and looked like her younger self but she was married to an older version of me, which was weird for…well me.

"I can't save I've noticed." I muttered as I ran my hand across the back of my neck, a nervous habit I had developed when I was a kid and hadn't quite shaken yet, much like how Tali wrung her hands together whenever she was nervous.

"Well you have." Ashley replied "You look good."

I smiled "Thanks." I replied and tried to pretend that I didn't just see her lick her lips when she said that and shook my head, not really wanting my brain to take me down that particular train of thought.

After a moments silence Ashley spoke up "I owe you an apology."

"What for?" I asked.

"When you said you wanted to learn how to be a sniper I didn't think you'd be able to do it, but you proved me wrong."

I raised an eyebrow "Why would you think that I wouldn't do it?"

"You…well the other you did try it once, in an attempt to beat Garrus but gave up, the first time because he said sniping was overrated and the second time Garrus goaded him into doing it he was a biotic and claimed that they were superior to snipers." Ashley replied with a smile as she remembered the memory.

She shared a few stories about the crew and how they had gotten on and the fun they had had over the years, all the while knocking back a few beers before eventually reaching her limit and passing out.

It was pretty late by then so with a chuckle I stood up and gently lifted her up and carried her to her room and tucked her into bed before retiring to my room to get some much needed sleep, not really looking forward to what I knew was going to be another day of running.


End file.
